(The 

BALLAD 

of 

ENSIGN 
JOY 

E.W. 

HORNUNG 



D 




Class ~D 

Book' 

Copyright iN _ 



H (* 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE BALLAD 
o/ ENSIGN JOY 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



,v 



V 



BY 



E. W. HORNUNG 




NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

68l FIFTH AVENUE 






Copyright, 191 7, 
By E. P. Dutton & Company 



DEC 17 1917 



printed in the United States of Hmertca 



©CI. £87 955 6 



SOLOMON CITED WONDERS THREE! 
ONE WAS THE WAY OF A SHIP AT SEA, 
ONE WAS THE WAY OF A MIGHTY BIRD, 
AND THE WAY OF A SERPENT WAS A 

THIRD. 
BUT SOLOMON (SINCE HE WAS IN THE 

trade) 
appended the way of a man with 
A maid; 

AND SOLOMON (STILL IN THE FLESH) 

MIGHT ADD 
THE WAY OF A MAID WITH A SOLDIER 

LAD. 




THE BALLAD of 
ENSIGN JOY 

|HIS is the story of 
Ensign Joy 
(And the obsolete 
rank withal 
That I love for each gentle Eng- 
lish boy 
Who jumped to his country's 
call. 
By their fire and fun, and the 

deeds they've done, 
/ would gazette them Second to 
none 
Who faces a gun in Gaul!) 

[i] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



FT is also the story of Ermyn- 
trude 
(A less appropriate name 
For the dearest prig and the 
prettiest prude! 
But under it, all the same, 
The usual consanguineous squad 
Had made her an honest child 
of God — 
And left her to play the game.) 



THE BALLAD 

of ENSIGN JOY 



FT was just when the grind of 
* the Special Reserves, 
Employed upon Coast De- 
fence, 
Was getting on every Ensign's 
nerves — 
Sick-keen to be drafted 
hence — 
That they met and played tennis 

and danced and sang, 
The lad with the laugh and the 
schoolboy slang, 

The girl with the eyes intense. 

[3l 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



\/ET it wasn't for him that she 
* languished and sighed, 

But for all of our dear deemed 
youth; 
And it wasn't for her, but her 
sex, that he cried, 
If he could but have probed 
the truth ! 
Did she? She would none of his 

hot young heart; 
As khaki escort he's tall and 
smart, 
As lover a shade uncouth. 

[4] 



THE BALLAD 

of ENSIGN JOY 



HE went with his draft. She 
returned to her craft. 
He wrote in his merry vein: 
She read him aloud, and the 
Studio laughed! 
(Ermyntrude bore the strain.) 
He was full of gay bloodshed and 

Old Man Fritz: 
His flippancy sent her friends 
into fits. 
(Ermyntrude frowned with 
pain.) 

[5] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HIS tales of the Sergeant who 
swore so hard 
Left Ermyntrude cold and 
prim; 
The tactless truth of the picture 
jarred, 
And some of his jokes were 
grim. 
Yet, let him but skate upon 

tender ice, 
And he had to write to her twice 
or thrice 
Before she would answer him. 

[6] 



THE BALLAD 
o/ ENSIGN JOY 



/V^ET once she sent him a 
\ * fairy's box, 

And her pocket felt the brunt 

Of tinned contraptions and 

books and socks — 

Which he hailed as "a sporting 

stunt !" 

She slaved at his muffler none 

the less, 
And still took pleasure in mur- 
muring, "Yes! 
For a friend of mine at the 
Front.") 

[7] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



ONE fine morning his name 
appears — 
Looking so pretty in print! 
"Wounded !" she warbles in 
tragedy tears — 
And pictures the reddening 
lint, 
The drawn damp face and the 

draggled hair . . . 
But she found him blooming in 
Grosvenor Square, 
With a punctured shin in a 
splint. 

[8] 



THE BALLAD 

of ENSIGN JOY 



IT wasn't a haunt of Ermyn- 

trude's, 

That grandiose urban pile; 

Like starlight in arctic altitudes 

Was the stately Sister's smile. 

It was just the reverse with 

Ensign Joy — 
In his golden greeting no least 
alloy — 
In his shining eyes no guile! 

[9l 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



H 



E showed her the bullet that 
did the trick — 
He showed her the trick, 
X-ray'd; 
He showed her a table timed to 
a tick, 
And a map that an airman 
made. 
He spoke of a shell that caused 

grievous loss — 
But he never mentioned a cer- 
tain Cross 
For his part in the escapade! 



[to] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



SHE saw it herself in a list next 
day, 
And it brought her back to his 
bed, 
With a number of beautiful 
things to say, 
Which were mostly over his 
head. 
Turned pink as his own pyjamas' 

stripe, 
To her mind he ceased to em- 
body a type — 
Sank into her heart instead. 

[ii] 



THE BALLAD 

oj ENSIGN JOY 



' ' T WONDER that all of you 
1 didn't retire!" 
"My blighters were not that 
kind." 
"But it says you 'advanced un- 
der murderous fire, 
Machine-gun and shell com- 
bined— '" 
"Oh, that's the regular War 

Office wheeze !" 
"'Advanced' — with that leg! — 
'on his hands and knees'!" 
"I couldn't leave it behind." 



[12] 



THE BALLAD 

oj ENSIGN JOY 



T E was soon trick-driving an 
* invalid chair, 
and dancing about on a crutch; 
The haute noblesse of Grosvenor 
Square 
Felt bound to oblige as such; 
They sent him for many a motor- 
whirl — 
With the wistful, willowy wisp of 
a girl 
Who never again lost touch. 

[13] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



THEIR people were most of 
them dead and gone. 
They had only themselves to 
please. 
His pay was enough to marry 
upon, 
As every Ensign sees. 
They would muddle along (as 

in fact they did) 
With vast supplies of the tertium 
quid 
You bracket with bread-and- 
cheese. 

[14] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HPHEY gave him some leave 
after Grosvenor Square- 
And bang went a month on 
banns; 
For Ermyntrude had a natural 
flair 
For the least unusual plans. 
Her heaviest uncle came down 

well, 
And entertained, at a fair hotel, 
The dregs of the coupled clans. 

[15] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



A 



CERTAIN number of 
cheques accrued 
To keep the wolf from the 

door: 
The economical Ermyntrude 
Had charge of the dwindling 
store, 
When a Board reported her 

bridegroom fit 
As — some expression she didn't 
permit . . . 
And he left for the Front once 
more. 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HIS crowd had been climbing 
the jaws of hell: 
He found them in death's dog- 
teeth, 
With little to show but a good 
deal to tell 
In their fissure of smoking 
heath. 
There were changes — of course 

— but the change in him 
Was the ribbon that showed on 
his tunic trim 
And the tumult hidden be- 
neath! 

[17] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



F70R all he had suffered and 
* seen before 

Seemed nought to a husband's 
care; 
And the Chinese puzzle of mod- 
ern war 
For subtlety couldn't compare 
With the delicate springs of the 

complex life 
To be led with a highly sensitised 
wife 
In a slightly rarefied air! 

[18] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



X/'ET it's good to be back with 
* the old platoon — 
"A man in a world of men"! 
Each cheery dog is a henchman 
boon — 
Especially Sergeant Wren! 
Ermyntrude couldn't endure his 

name — 
Considered bad language no lien 
on fame, 
Yet it's good to — hear it 
again! 

[19] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



/DETTER to feel the Ser- 
V*—' geant's grip, 

Though your fingers ache to 

the bone! 

Better to take the Sergeant's tip 

Than to make up your mind 

alone. 

They can do things together, can 

Wren and Joy — 
The bristly bear and the beard- 
less boy — 
That neither could do on his 
own.) 

[20] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



BUT there's never a word 
about Old Man Wren 
In the screeds he scribbles 
to-day — 
Though he praises his N.GO/s 
and men 
In rather a pointed way. 
And he rubs it in (with a knitted 

brow) 
That the war's as good as a pic- 
nic now, 
And better than any play! 

[21] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



I T IS booby-hutch is "as safe 
* * as the Throne/' 
And he fares "like the C.-in- 
Chief," 

But has purchased "a top-hole 
gramophone 
By way of comic relief. 5 ' 
(And he sighs as he hears the 

men applaud, 
While the Woodbine spices are 
wafted abroad 
With the odour of bully-beef.) 

[22] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



HE may touch on the latest 
type of bomb, 
But Ermyntrude needn't 
blench, 
For he never says where you hurl 
it from, 
And it might be from your 
trench. 
He never might lead a stealthy 

band, 
Or toe the horrors of No Man's 
Land, 
Or swim at the sickly stench. 

[23] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



T TER letters came up by 
-* -* ration-cart 

As the men stood-to before 
dawn: 
He followed the chart of her 
soaring heart 
With face transfigured yet 
drawn : 
It filled him with pride, touched 

with chivalrous shame. 
But — it spoilt the war, as a first- 
class game, 
For this particular pawn. 

[24] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HpHE Sergeant sees it, and 
damns the cause 
In a truly terrible flow; 
But turns and trounces, without 
a pause, 
A junior N. C. O. 
For the crime of agreeing that 

Ensign Joy 
Isn't altogether the officer boy 
That he was four months ago !) 

[25] 



THE BALLAD 

oj ENSIGN JOY 



AT length he's dumfounded 
(the month being May) 
By a sample of Ermyntrude's 
fun! 
"You will kindly get leave over 
Christmas Day, 
Or make haste and finish the 
Hun!" 
But Christmas means presents, 

she bids him beware : 
"So what do you say to a son and 
heir? 
I'm thinking oj giving you 



one!!!' 



[26] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 

T Tl THAT, indeed, does the 
Ensign say? 
What does he sit and write? 
What do his heart-strings drone all day? 

What do they throb all night? 
What does he add to his piteous 

prayers? — 
"Not for my own sake, Lord, but 
— theirs, 
See me safe through . . . " 

[27] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



< «npHEY talk"— and he writhes 
•* — "of our spirit out here, 
Our valour and all the rest! 
There's my poor, lonely, delicate 
dear, 
As brave as the very best! 
We stand or fall in a cheery 

crowd, 
And yet how often we grouse 
aloud ! 
She faces that with a jest!" 

[28] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HE has had no sleep for a day 
and a night; 
He has written her half a 
ream; 
He has Iain him down to wait for 
the light, 
And at last come sleep — and a 
dream. 
He's hopping on sticks up the 

studio stair: 
A telegraph-boy is waiting there, 
And — that is his darling's 
scream! 

[29] 



THE BALLAD 

oj ENSIGN JOY 



IE picks her up in a tender 
* * storm — 

But how does it come to pass 
That he cannot see his reflected 
form 
With hers in the studio glass? 
"What's wrong with that mir- 
ror?" he cries. 
But only the Sergeant's voice 
replies : 
"Wake up, Sir! The Gas — 
the Gas!" 

[30] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



IS it a part of the dream of 
dread? 
What are the men about? 
Each one sticking a haunted 
head 
Into a spectral clout! 
Funny, the dearth of gibe and 

joke, 
When each one looks like a pig 
in a poke, 
Not omitting the snout! 

[31] 



THE BALLAD 

oj ENSIGN JOY 



i i 



ITERE'S your mask, Sir! No 
time to lose!" 
Ugh, what a gallows shape! 
Partly white cap, and partly 
noose! 
Somebody ties the tape. 
Goggles of sorts, it seems, inset: 
Cock them over the parapet, 
Study the battlescape. 



[32] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



E 



^JSIGN JOY'S in the second 
line — 



And more than a bit cut off; 
A furlong or so down a green 
incline 
The fire-trench curls in the 
trough. 
Joy cannot see it — it's in the bed 
Of a river of poison that brims 
instead. 
He can only hear — a cough! 

[33] 



THE BALLAD 

of ENSIGN JOY 



NTOTHING to do for the 

Companies there — 
Nothing but waiting now, 
While the Gas rolls up on the 
balmy air, 
And a small bird cheeps on a 
bough. 
All of a sudden the sky seems full 
Of trusses of lighted cotton- wool 
And the enemy's big bow- 
wow! 

[34l 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 

HPHE firmament cracks with 
* his airy mines, 

And an interlacing hail 
Threshes the clover between our 
lines, 
As a vile invisible flail. 
And the trench has become a 

mighty vice 
That holds us, in skins of molten 
ice, 
For the vapors that fringe the 
veil. 

[35] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



IT'S coming — in billowy swirls 
* — as smoke 

From the roof a world on fire. 
It — comes! And a lad with a 
heart of oak 
Knows only that heart's de- 
sire! 
His masked lips whimper but one 

dear name — 
And so is he lost to inward shame 
That he thrills at the word: 
"Re-tire!" 

[36] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



A 7t 7HOSE is the order, thrice 
renewed? 
Ensign Joy cannot tell : 
Only, that way lies Ermyntrude, 
And the other way this hell! 
Three men leap from the pois- 
oned fosse, 
Three men plunge from the para- 
dos, 
And — their — officer — as well! 



[37] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



\ TOW, as he flies at their fly- 
* ^ ing heels, 
He awakes to his deep dis- 
grace, 
But the yawning pit of his shame 
reveals 
A way of saving his face: 
He twirls his stick to a shep- 
herd's crook, 
To trip and bring one of them 
back to book, 
As though he'd been giving 

chase! 

[38] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



HE got back gasping — 
'They'd too much start !" 
'Td've shot 'em instead !" 
said Wren. 
"That was your job, Sir, if you'd 
the 'eart — 
But it wouldn't' ve been you, 
then. 
I pray my Lord I may live to see 
A firing-party in front o' them 
three!" 
(That's what he said to the 

men.) 

[39] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



\TOW, Joy and Wren, of 

Company B, 

Are a favourite firm of mine; 

And the way they reinforced A, 

C, and D 

Was, perhaps, not unduly fine; 

But it meant a good deal both to 

Wren and Joy — 
That grim, gaunt man, but that 
desperate boy! — 
And it didn't weaken the Line. 

[40] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



* * IVf^* a ^ ac * e ffort of yours, 
^ my lad," 
The Major deigned to declare. 
"My Sergeant's plan, Sir" — 
"And that's not bad — 
But you've lost that ribbon 
you wear?" 
"It — must have been eaten away 

by the Gas!" 
"Well — ribbons are ribbons — 
but don't be an ass! 
It's better to do than dare." 

[41] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



jTXARE! He has dared to de- 

*— * sert his post — 

But he daren't acknowledge 

his sin! 

He has dared to face Wren with 

a lying boast — 

But Wren is not taken in. 

None sings his praises so long 

and loud — 

With look so loving and loyal 

and proud! 

But the boy sees under his 

skin. 
[42] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



~^\ AILY and gaily he wrote to 
*— * his wife, 
Who had dropped the beati- 
fied droll 
And was writing to him on the 
Meaning of Life 
And the Bonds between Body 
and Soul. 
Her courage was high — though 

she mentioned its height; 
She was putting upon her the 
Armour of Light — 

Including her aureole! 

[43l 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



O UT never a helm had the lad 

we know, 

As he went on his nightly raids 

With a brace of his Blighters, an 

N. C O. 

And a bagful of hand-grenades 

And the way he rattled and 

harried the Hun — 
The deeds he did dare, and the 
risks he would run — 
Were the gossip of the Bri- 
gades. 

[44] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



HOW he'd stand stockstill as 
the trunk of a tree, 
With his face tucked down 
out of sight, 
When a flare went up and the 
other three 
Fell prone in the frightening 
light. 
How the German sandbags, that 

made them quake, 
Were the only cover he cared to 
take, 
But he'd eavesdrop there all 
night. 

[45] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



MACHINE-GUNS, tapping 
a phrase in Morse, 
Grew hot on a random quest, 
And swarms of bullets buzzed 
down the course 
Like wasps from a trampled 
nest. 
Yet, that last night! 

They had just set off 
When he pitched on his face with 
a smothered cough, 
And a row of holes in his chest. 

[46] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



I TE left a letter. It saved 
the lives 
Of the three who ran from the 
Gas; 
A small enclosure alone survives, 

In Middlesex, under glass: 
Only the ribbon that left his 

breast 
On the day he turned and ran 
with the rest, 
And lied with a lip of brass! 

[47] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



|3 UT the letters they wrote 
*-^ about the boy, 

From the Brigadier to the 
men! 
They would never forget dear 
Mr. Joy, 
Not look on his like again. 
Ermyntrude read them with dry, 

proud eye. 
There was only one letter that 
made her cry. 
It was from Sergeant Wren : 

[48] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



' * nPHERE never was such a fear- 
* less man, 

Or one so beloved as he. 
He was always up to some daring 
plan, 
Or some treat for his men and 
me. 
There wasn't his match when he 

went away; 
But since he got back, there has 
not been a day 
But what he has earned a 
V. C." 

[49] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



A CYNICAL story? That's 
* * not my view. 
The years since he fell are 
twain. 
What were his chances of coming 
through? 
Which of his friends remain? 
But Ermyntrude's training a 

splendid boy 
Twenty years younger than En- 
sign Joy. 
On balance, a British gain! 

[50] 



THE BALLAD 
0/ ENSIGN JOY 



AND Ermyntrude, did she 
lose her all 
Or find it, two years ago? 
O young girl-wives of the boys 
who fall, 
With your youth and your 
babes to show! 
No heart but bleeds for your 

widowhood. 
Yet Life is with you, and Life is 
good. 
No bone of your bone lies low! 

[51] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



YOUR blessedness came — as 
it went- — in a day. 
Deep dread but heightened 
your mirth. 
Your idols' feet never turned to 
clay- 
Never lit upon common earth. 
Love is the Game but is not the 

Goal: 
You played it together, body and 
soul, 
And you had your Candle's 
worth. 

[52] 



THE BALLAD 

of ENSIGN JOY 



YES ! though the Candle light 
a Shrine, 
And heart cannot count the 
cost, 
You are Winners yet in its tender 
shine! 
Would they choose to have 
lived and lost? 
There are chills, you see, for the 

finest hearts ; 
But, once it is only old Death 
that parts, 
There can never come twinge 
of frost. 

[53] 



THE BALLAD 
of ENSIGN JOY 



AND this be our comfort for 
Every Boy 
Cut down in his high heyday, 
Or ever the Sweets of the Morn- 
ing cloy, 
Or the Green Leaf wither 

away. 
So a sunlit billow curls to a crest, 
And shouts as it breaks at its 
loveliest, 
In a glory of rainbow spray! 

[54] 



THE BALLAD 
oj ENSIGN JOY 



HE it also the making of 
*^ Ermyntrude, 

And many a hundred more — 
Compact of foibles and forti- 
tude — 
Woo'd, won, and widow'd, in 
War. 
God, keep us gallant and unde- 

filed, 
Worthy of Husband, Lover, or 
—Child . . . 
Sweet as themselves at the 
core! 

[55] 



